1868. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
181 
would be far better than cither, though a little 
more expensive. There is a thatch roof on the 
farm adjoining that of the writer, which has 
Fig. 2.— SECTION OP TIIATCH-ROOF. 
been laid more than 20 years, and having had a 
little patching recently, is good now. The en¬ 
gravings represent the layers of straw very dis¬ 
tinct, for the sake of illustrating the manner of 
putting them on. When finished, the thatch 
presents nearly an uniform surface, the eaves are 
clipped evenly, and the whole roof raked down. 
There is a great necessity for making the thatch 
of even thickness. The irregularities of one lay¬ 
er are counterbalanced in a measure by those 
above and below it, but care should be taken to 
have one about as thick as another; and it is 
desirable, in order to accomplish this, that the 
straw should be nearly of an uniform length. 
- - - -> o» -■ ■- 
Native Cattle. 
We talk about native cattle; if by this we 
understand mongrels, nondescripts, or mixtures 
of the run-out blood of various breeds, then the 
name is misused. We should say “common 
cattle.” If we use the name rightly, it would 
indicate that climate, feed, and treatment, had 
influenced the common stock of cattle, so that 
those of a particular district had become in 
many points very similar. This is not the 
case,so far as we know, anywhere in this country, 
except to a very limited extent, though we al¬ 
most wonder at it. There was a time, a few 
years since, when it seemed as if we might ex¬ 
pect to see such native breeds developed in 
various parts of our country; but the general 
dissemination of the improved British breeds has, 
we think, broken up any foundations of new 
breeds which might have been laid. The red 
cattle of Connecticut now have almost all a 
dash of North Devon blood, introduced within 
forty years; but previous to that the cattle hav¬ 
ing come from the south of England, where 
the prevalent color of the native breeds is red, 
and having been bred with some intelligence, 
haipreserved their color and improved in form, 
so that, though differing essentially from any 
pure English breed, they yet agreed quite as well 
among themselves as some recognized breeds. 
Throughout the older Northern States cattle 
have been bred for years for milk and veal more 
than for beef, and yet our common cows have 
never been reliable as milkers. It has even be¬ 
come proverbial that a good cow’s heifer calves 
were rarely equal to their dam, although bulls 
coming of famous milkers were more frequently 
getters of good milcli stock. Famous milkers 
are always to be found among the so-called 
“ Natives,” and if one wished to establish a fine 
dairy herd, his best plan has been, and still is, to 
select through the country these deep milkers 
wherever he can find them—and yet the main¬ 
tenance of the herd from males of his own 
breeding has been always attended with disap¬ 
pointment, and its deterioration in good points,. 
The same result has been obtained in regard 
to breeding for beef, for it was not until the in¬ 
troduction of the improved British breeds, 
Devons,Short-horns,and Herefords, that uniform 
excellence of quality, rapid growth, and econo¬ 
my of feeding, could be predicated with any¬ 
thing like the certainty with which we now 
raise grade cattle for beef, notwithstanding, the 
immediate progeny of certain animals occasion¬ 
ally resembled their sires or dams in early matu¬ 
rity, easy fattening, and excellence of the beef. 
We present these facts in order to enforce the 
important fact that no breeder can expect to im¬ 
prove Ms stock except by breeding exclusively from 
thorough-bred or full-blood males. This is a broad, 
general principle, and equally applicable to 
all polygamous animals, that is, those which 
do not pair , from horses to barn-yard fowls. 
A Summer Fowl-House and Yard. 
A very large number of those who might be 
enthusiastic poultry keepers are deterred from 
keeping fowls, because the narrow accommo¬ 
dations in which fowls do very well in winter 
are too small for them in summer, and they can¬ 
not be allowed free range, or they would dam¬ 
age their owner’s and the neighbors’ gardens. 
To meet the wants of such, as well as of those 
fanciers who wish to keep several breeds sep¬ 
arate, Mr. J. H. Mabbett, of Jersey City, has 
devised the following neat plan, which we think 
combines taste, cheapness, and efficiency. He 
writes: “I would suggest to those who may 
adopt the plan, that they buy young fowls of 
some of the many good breeds, and feed them 
well, giving them all the refuse pieces of bread, 
pastry, meat, etc., of the table, which will be 
eagerly eaten, and materially reduce the amount 
of grain required to keep them. If six or eight 
good hens are selected and well cared for, they 
will supply an ordinary family with all the eggs 
required for the season, and in the fall when 
they stop laying, will be in fine condition for 
the table.”. The plan presented contemplates 
the suspension of a small octagonal house, about 
four or five feet in diameter, in the. following 
manner: There are eight 2 x 3-inch rafters, 7 
or 8 feet long, “ tied ” by cross strips connect¬ 
ing those opposite, the strips being nailed to the 
rafters above the middle. The roof extends 
four feet from the peak on all sides. The eight 
posts for the house are nailed to the rafters so 
that the eaves will extend a few inches beyond 
the sides, which may be of three-quarter inch 
pine boards, one of the sides being a door. The 
floor is an open work of laths, and is two or 
three feet above the ground. An alighting shelf 
runs around the whole house, and nest boxes 
are set inside, accessible by sliding doors from 
without, for removing the eggs. The ends of 
the rafters are connected by 2 x 3-incli plate 
pieces, nailed to the rafters and to the eight 
posts. These posts may be about 6 feet high, 
and are nailed upon sills, all of the same sized 
stuff. This external frame is covered or filled 
in with a lattice-work or plain slat-work of com¬ 
mon building laths, substantially in the manner 
shown in the engraving. This whole structure, 
if made of the largest size contemplated, would 
be entirely portable, and might by slipping a 
couple of scantlings under the sills be pushed 
about upon rollers almost anywhere, upon 
nearly level ground, and so be shifted every 
few days to where the grass is fresh. A 
ventilator is provided in the top of the house, 
and a step ladder, if necessary, for the fowls to 
ascend two or three feet to the alighting shelf. 
Clover West of the Mississippi. 
Grass and grain grow so freely at the West 
that until recently the farmers have paid little 
attention to crops that would improve the soil, 
to rotation, or to other means of increasing 
its productiveness, using little draining, little 
manuring, and very 
little clover. The follow¬ 
ing letter from J. L. Er¬ 
win, of Callaway Co., 
Mo., will be read with 
interest, as it evinces 
progress in the right di¬ 
rection, and indicates 
profitable fields of labor 
for industrious men: 
“Doubtless many of 
your readers, like my¬ 
self, own small farms 
and would like to make 
them as valuable as they 
can. Nearly, if not all 
the model farms we read 
of are so large, and the 
capital necessary to run 
them successfully so 
great, that we despair of 
ever being able to make 
ours models. There is 
very little systematic 
farming done here—no 
rotation of crops, and 
but little clover grown. 
I came to this State in 
April 1866, brought with 
me a bushel and a half 
of the common Red 
clover seed, and about half a bushel of what 
we have always called the ‘Large Red’ or 
‘English’ clover seed. We sowed one bushel 
of the former and three gallons of the latter, each 
with an equal quantity of Timothy seed, on 
oats, immediately after sowing. It all came up 
well, but in July and August the Timothy and 
a great deal of the commo.n clover perished with 
SUMMER FOWL-HOUSE AND YARD. 
